If they're looking for blight, they should start at the Heidelberg project. Ugliest damn "ar"t installation in the city. Some good hearted soul has been trying to burn it down for months. I applaud their efforts.

How can a city of 139 square miles and once built for 1.8 million people comfortably hold its current 700,000 residents, and must it, in essence, shrink to survive?

Well duh. Of course it needs to shrink. Is that even in doubt? The question is how best to do it and how to pay for it.

Maybe they can find some threatened plants/animals hiding out in the city and get this organization and others take the land off their hands:Michigan Nature Association

Gradually tear down the buildings over the years and map out a 300 year plan to let it return to nature. In the meantime blocks and blocks of abandoned buildings, some partially or entirely torn down, with the land slowly swallowing them up can be opened as a post-apocalyptic style theme park!

patrick767:How can a city of 139 square miles and once built for 1.8 million people comfortably hold its current 700,000 residents, and must it, in essence, shrink to survive?

Well duh. Of course it needs to shrink. Is that even in doubt? The question is how best to do it and how to pay for it.

Maybe they can find some threatened plants/animals hiding out in the city and get this organization and others take the land off their hands:Michigan Nature Association

Gradually tear down the buildings over the years and map out a 300 year plan to let it return to nature. In the meantime blocks and blocks of abandoned buildings, some partially or entirely torn down, with the land slowly swallowing them up can be opened as a post-apocalyptic style theme park!

It's a NYT story. The idea that a city may need to shrink makes a New Yorker's head assplode. They can't handle the concept.

Plus, Blight Surveying is a government job, so each dollar we pay them magically turns into $1.79, right libs? In fact, we're stupid not to pay them at least $35 even without the union, it should lift Detroit right out of bankruptcy. Hire 100,000 blight surveyors, pay them all $35/hour, that's $140million a week, * 1.79 = $250,000,000 a week that gets pumped into the Detroit economy. The city tax rate of 2.4% will generate over $3 million a week alone for the city. We can then fully fund all the pensions, get out of bankruptcy, buy back Belle Isle.. MAN this will be great!

Plus, Blight Surveying is a government job, so each dollar we pay them magically turns into $1.79, right libs? In fact, we're stupid not to pay them at least $35 even without the union, it should lift Detroit right out of bankruptcy. Hire 100,000 blight surveyors, pay them all $35/hour, that's $140million a week, * 1.79 = $250,000,000 a week that gets pumped into the Detroit economy. The city tax rate of 2.4% will generate over $3 million a week alone for the city. We can then fully fund all the pensions, get out of bankruptcy, buy back Belle Isle.. MAN this will be great!

Silly_Sot:patrick767: How can a city of 139 square miles and once built for 1.8 million people comfortably hold its current 700,000 residents, and must it, in essence, shrink to survive?

Well duh. Of course it needs to shrink. Is that even in doubt? The question is how best to do it and how to pay for it.

Maybe they can find some threatened plants/animals hiding out in the city and get this organization and others take the land off their hands:Michigan Nature Association

Gradually tear down the buildings over the years and map out a 300 year plan to let it return to nature. In the meantime blocks and blocks of abandoned buildings, some partially or entirely torn down, with the land slowly swallowing them up can be opened as a post-apocalyptic style theme park!

It's a NYT story. The idea that a city may need to shrink makes a New Yorker's head assplode. They can't handle the concept.

DarkVader:Detroit doesn't need to shrink. It needs to figure out how to grow.

Perhaps a better term would be centralize. Detroit has a huge footprint; Boston, San Francisco, and Manhattan combined don't have an area equal to Detroit's. Because of Detroit's huge size and population loss there are lots of blocks with only a couple occupied houses, so the city still has to maintain services and utility infrastructure to these now sparsely populated areas. This means that while Detroit only has a population of 700,000 it's infrastructure costs are much closer to those of a city with twice that population. The idea behind "shrinking" the city is that If the population was moved into a couple of core areas Detroit would see a dramatic drop in its operating costs.

Polish Hussar:DarkVader: Detroit doesn't need to shrink. It needs to figure out how to grow.

Perhaps a better term would be centralize. Detroit has a huge footprint; Boston, San Francisco, and Manhattan combined don't have an area equal to Detroit's. Because of Detroit's huge size and population loss there are lots of blocks with only a couple occupied houses, so the city still has to maintain services and utility infrastructure to these now sparsely populated areas. This means that while Detroit only has a population of 700,000 it's infrastructure costs are much closer to those of a city with twice that population. The idea behind "shrinking" the city is that If the population was moved into a couple of core areas Detroit would see a dramatic drop in its operating costs.

Concentrating the population would also make police and fire protection much easier.

DarkVader:Silly_Sot: patrick767: How can a city of 139 square miles and once built for 1.8 million people comfortably hold its current 700,000 residents, and must it, in essence, shrink to survive?

Well duh. Of course it needs to shrink. Is that even in doubt? The question is how best to do it and how to pay for it.

Maybe they can find some threatened plants/animals hiding out in the city and get this organization and others take the land off their hands:Michigan Nature Association

Gradually tear down the buildings over the years and map out a 300 year plan to let it return to nature. In the meantime blocks and blocks of abandoned buildings, some partially or entirely torn down, with the land slowly swallowing them up can be opened as a post-apocalyptic style theme park!

It's a NYT story. The idea that a city may need to shrink makes a New Yorker's head assplode. They can't handle the concept.

That's because it's a really really stupid idea.

Detroit doesn't need to shrink. It needs to figure out how to grow.

Oh my gosh! Why didn't they think of that sooner!? You should tell them, I doubt they've even considered this idea before.

I wouldn't do it for $100 an hour. I used to live in the area, and I'm glad I got out. The place is a dangerous pit of crime and decay. The cops are crooked (and afraid). The gangs are reckless. The city council doesn't give a shiat. The place is utter crap.

Every generation for the past three, a group of hipster young folks say they're going to "transform" Detroit. They open shops or try to make it seem cool to live there. They do community art projects, paint murals, and try to clean up some abandoned parking lots to turn them into skate parks.

And then they meet someone, fall in love, get married, and realize they do not want to raise kids in that hellhole. So they move.

Detroit's great for pale-faced folks if they're young and have that sense of immortality we all have when we're youthful and full of piss & vinegar... But when we get a little older we ALL realize we want to live longer, have safe families, and happy kids. You can't get that in Detroit unless you're black (and even then it's iffy), rich, or poor, stupid white trash who doesn't know any better.

When you consider Detroit's most recent significant cultural contribution to the world has been Juggalos, Kid Rock, and Eminem, you understand why the place deserves to be bulldozed to the ground and sold back to the Native Americans for a handful of beads.

Pick:I would love to have a nice warehouse type building to turn into loft type apartments. Might be worth something in 50 years after the recovery kicks in.

If recovery kicks in. In that area. While paying for exterior maintenance to make sure it doesn't degrade into shambles in the meantime. That's a hefty risk factor compared to the ease of tearing down the building and hoping that your plot of land is eventually worth something.